Today started with beautiful white grapes but then it was red, red, red…

Following the (white) Sous Fretile was red Savigny 1er Les Vergelesses then a pair of Pernands – first En Caradeux and then a smaller parcel of Les Fichots. The Vergelesses comes from a plot of old vines – roughly 60-years-old, and although needing very little actual triage (the amount of concentration on the grapes passing across the table is the same) the berry size was not the smallest – it is like this every year with particular plat material. The two Pernands were very, very similar in the amount of triage – particular this year is the very modest amount of under-ripe grapes that I’ve been discarding – even in vintages like 2005 or 2015 I’m sure that there was a little more. Despite the ripeness of the grapes – you only need see how brown the pips are – the degrees are not too much – 12° for our Savigny villages, 12.5° for the Corton – despite how sweet the grapes and grape-juice tastes. The acidity seems to offer a little more freshness than either 2015 or 2016 at the same stage, yet analytically it’s really only average.

Note that our chief was up to it again with his blind bottle – this time I was sure that it was (once more) an Ampeau of similar vintage to yesterday’s white. So it was – 1979 again – but my guess was a Volnay – I would never have come up with a Blagny! Like the white this wine was unrecognisable after 10 minutes of air. Bot the aroma and flavour being earthy, pinched and not that tasty to start. Time brought a lovely red fruit note and much more width and richness to the flavour and texture. Definitely worth a refill!

Tomorrow is Saturday and we will be be bringing in grapes on Saturday and Sunday – but tomorrow will be different – we will have rain!

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